19 Facts About Ephraim Isaac

Ephraim Isaac was born on 29 May 1936 and is an Ethiopian scholar of ancient Ethiopian Semitic languages and of African and Ethiopian civilizations.

Ephraim Isaac founded the Institute of Semitic Studies, which he directs from his home in Princeton, NJ, and is the chair of his Ethiopian Peace and Development Center.

Ephraim Isaac was the first professor of Afro-American studies at Harvard University.

Ephraim Isaac has been a professor at various universities and has published scholarly articles and books.

Ephraim Isaac was the first faculty appointment in Harvard University's Department of African and Afro-American Studies in 1969, and he played an important role in the early history of the department.

Ephraim Isaac was a fellow at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Advanced Studies.

Ephraim Isaac has been a fellow at Harvard University's W E B Du Bois Research Institute and at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton.

Ephraim Isaac had a long-running dispute with the president of Harvard regarding the denial of his strong nomination for tenure by the then Department of African American Studies.

Ephraim Isaac founded an ad hoc Peace Committee at a critical stage in 1989.

Ephraim Isaac participated in the conference as an observer, and gave one of the three concluding addresses.

Ephraim Isaac has negotiated the release of about 35,000 prisoners and has helped organize inter-political party dialogues, an election board, national police chiefs and justices seminars.

Ephraim Isaac is currently the international chair of the Horn of Africa Board of Peace and Development Organization and the former president of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America.

Ephraim Isaac is on editorial boards of two international scholarly journals: Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Second Temple Jewish Literature.

Ephraim Isaac is a member of the board or advisory council of several interfaith and intercultural groups and organizations, nationally and internationally.

Ephraim Isaac was nominated twice to the Harvard University Board of Overseers on an Anti-apartheid slate along with fifteen other distinguished Harvard alumni, including those who struggled against South African Apartheid and Archbishop Tutu.

Ephraim Isaac was the first to propose in October 1993 to the Parliament the idea of a "united nations" of world religions to promote world peace and prosperity.

In 2005 Ephraim Isaac contributed to other peace-building symposia among the three followers of the Religion of Abraham who have roots in Arabic culture as President of the Yemenite Federation of America, sponsored by the Government of Jordan and the Interfaith Council of Jordan.

In June 2006 Ephraim Isaac gave a keynote talk to the international congress of conflict resolution experts sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway and Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

Ephraim Isaac's work has been featured in several front-page stories, including three in The New York Times, three in the Trenton Times and The Record, and one editorial in the Washington Post.